Changes to Critical Hit and Critical Block system

Greetings, students. I would like to take some time to comment on the recent adjustments made to the Critical and Block system. As many of you are aware, we made significant changes to the system and how it works. These changes were not made lightly. I want to assure you that we would not have made these changes if we did not feel they were absolutely necessary. With this in mind, the system will not be reverted to the way it was in the past.

If it wasn’t made clear before, this is how the new system works: The attacker will roll to see if they score a Critical Hit. If the attack is a Critical, then the defender will roll to see if they successfully Block the Critical hit. Because this is working differently than how it was calculated before, some of you will notice a change in your chance to score a Critical Hit or Block.

Please give it a try and see the how the changes impact your gameplay in practice. We take your feedback very seriously (both positive and negative). We read the forums here and on other sites. Based on feedback we have already received, we are looking at tweaking some numbers to improve scores at certain points in the level curve. Overall, we want a healthy game where players are having fun. We will continue to monitor player feedback and your progression through the game.

The only things I see that are needed to be done, is that our chance of Blocking needs to significantly increase, and the ratio between Critical and Block being a factor in deciding if you block or not needs to return. Critical's are still very common in both PvP and PvE. Especially in level 60 PvP, due to no decrease in what Critical counts for. So if the two above things are not done, PvE and PvP will continue to be a huge mess of Critical's commonly happening and not being Blocked. Even if you lower Critical even more, having our chances of blocking being low is not a very good idea, if our block is close to the opponents amount of Critical, we deserve to block more often than not. And I am not just making this stuff up, I have seen it for myself. I have been testing it in the arena, and I can say I have not blocked a single Critical, even though they are still very common. And this is just not fair. I would say that if our chance of Block were to be increased by a decent amount, this new system would be perfect. Randomness and variation cannot be a factor in something as major as Critical.

1- Please restore block and crit back to the levels they were, or close. Defensive builds should block most bosses. Max level offensive builds should crit most or all of the time. You've just made farming and mob grinding harder, and negated the last two years of upgrades. That hurts, and makes the game less fun.

2- crit in low level PvP is still out of hand. Please set critical 'off' under level 40 or 50 in the arena. In the old system, a small bit of block would stop a small bit of crit, so low levels with any block had at least a chance against a quad crit pet and pack wands. Now there is almost none.

The only things I see that are needed to be done, is that our chance of Blocking needs to significantly increase, and the ratio between Critical and Block being a factor in deciding if you block or not needs to return. Critical's are still very common in both PvP and PvE. Especially in level 60 PvP, due to no decrease in what Critical counts for. So if the two above things are not done, PvE and PvP will continue to be a huge mess of Critical's commonly happening and not being Blocked. Even if you lower Critical even more, having our chances of blocking being low is not a very good idea, if our block is close to the opponents amount of Critical, we deserve to block more often than not. And I am not just making this stuff up, I have seen it for myself. I have been testing it in the arena, and I can say I have not blocked a single Critical, even though they are still very common. And this is just not fair. I would say that if our chance of Block were to be increased by a decent amount, this new system would be perfect. Randomness and variation cannot be a factor in something as major as Critical.

I think you pretty much explained it perfectly, I would agree that these are the things that need to be changed. With those it is a perfect system

"Please give it a try and see the how the changes impact your gameplay in practice. We take your feedback very seriously (both positive and negative). We read the forums here and on other sites. Based on feedback we have already received, we are looking at tweaking some numbers to improve scores at certain points in the level curve. Overall, we want a healthy game where players are having fun. We will continue to monitor player feedback and your progression through the game."

The past two days have been a flood of complaints for how the new system seems to be working in the old worlds. Basically, that we obviously notice the difference in our new stats, but that old world bosses (and even regular enemies) don't seem to have been adjusted. They still crit often and we almost never block now. And in my experience, the few times that I do crit, they still get blocked every time. On top of that, there doesn't seem to be any way to increase these stats as we level up, because there is no new gear at these levels to make up for the drop in stats that we saw with the updated system.

I do hope you are reading and taking seriously what everyone is saying. Asking us to "give it a try and see how the changes impact your gameplay" almost sounds like a joke, as if that isn't what we've been doing for two (now three) days.

I hope you will consider this thread especially, as it gives many examples and details of what we think is still wrong:

Frankly, we should completely drop the block and critical from the game itself. For that matter, let's also drop pierce and other buffs. Let's just play without a bunch of enhancements so that people have to actually learn how to play their own schools. This would make a more even playing field between us and the NPC's, if we're stripped of all the convoluted extra stuff.

With the change to the critical system, but no changes to earlier worlds to me is the one of the main problems. They were designed and tweaked over a long time to a reasonable level. Critical changes made to them with out a update to the foes is a big change. Bosses who have a higher critical percentage now are making it through blocks regularly. This was such a major update to me it should have been in its own test realm. Loss of flat block to percentage ratio including the dead zone worsened it. I know there is less loss at lower levels, but at higher ones the foes are still the same but the dead zone is large. Also as someone who recently bought packs to get higher block just to find they really don't make that much of a difference is upsetting.

Mobs are criticaling significantly more than we can keep up with by blocking. Block chance needs to be increased if critical stays where its at - Because its not working well. I understand you guys a KI feel its better for the game, but the way it is now isn't enjoyed by the players. If anything, this portion of the update has only caused anguish. The players would be happier with a change. LIFE WIZARDS NEED A SEPARATE CRITICAL HEALING STAT, WITH MORE CHANCE. Life wizards' gear doesn't have good critical, and we rely on the critical for healing. This critical portion of the update really only seems helpful in pvp, but has a serious negative effect in PvE. The healing boost when we critical is helpful, but that only comes in to play when we CAN critical. Would rather a boost when we don't critical..

Tweaking? How about overhauling. A boss yesterday in Azteca crit on me 5 times in a row. 5 TIMES. The new system isn't working. What is that boss's crit rating? 7000?

I've been going on Wizard101 every day now for the past few weeks and playing for hours. When this update hit, I've been playing much less. I didn't even log on today. This update makes me NOT have fun. The game isn't fun when a boss crits on you 5 times in a row and you don't block even one, when before I could have blocked at least 3/5. I'm a solo player. Can't solo anymore! I have to put on my full jade armor to ward off the boss's never ending barrage of criticals. Blocks need to be increased and monsters' crits need to be decreased. This is my favorite game! I've been playing since 2008. But when an update like this hits, it makes me re-think playing it.

Since there isn't a possibility to change back to the old system, I would very much appreciate a increase in critical block percentage. I've noticed almost always when a spell goes critical, it is not blocked. An increase in block percentage would make this new system much more fair.

I am sorry to say this, but I will most likely stop playing this game if nothing is done about Life critical heals. I have already posted throughout the forum stating how Life was severely impacted with this update. I strongly suggest clicking on my name and reading how the new critical system impacted Life significantly. Please do.

I still can't figure out how this update balances the game. How does taking Life's ability to heal effectively balance the game? I want a serious answer to my question--and no, the minor bonus to critical heals does NOT solve this dilemma. At least make the critical healing calculations different than the damage critical calculations so we may actually heal ourselves and others effectively. After all, Life was always meant to be able to heal others effectively. Please consider this change, and I once again ask you to read my posts about the new critical system and its effects on the Life school. Please make this game enjoyable to play again. Life really needs healing critical back to keep up with all the other schools. Please, take this idea into consideration and take your time to realize that Life is no longer a healing school.

It is perfectly understandable that the old system will not be returned, as it was nearly as broken as the new one is in it's current state.

Assuming I'm reading the situation correctly, under the new system, even if the target had 100% crit chance, now block would have a chance to activate depending on my gear *for me pre-nerf was 56%*, so even with that certain crit chance, i would still block the criticals just over half the time.

I think the system is fine as it is, but i feel the percentage nerf was completely unnecessary. Personally I think a good bet would be to at the very least raise crit/block percentages to where they were pre-nerf. Just a bit of constructive criticism.

The main problem with this update as far as I can tell, is that the Critical/Block changes did not affect anything pre-Polaris. Mobs and bosses still critical as often as they always have *which is VERY frequently* and still consistently block our much less frequent critical hits, while our wizards are now pretty much incapable of blocking the constant critical hit barrage due to the new system.

This results in a much more difficult, frustrating, and plain unfun experience than before, and the feeling that you are regressing, not progressing, due to enemy critical rates climbing higher and higher, while our block chance just goes lower and lower.

Greetings, students. I would like to take some time to comment on the recent adjustments made to the Critical and Block system. As many of you are aware, we made significant changes to the system and how it works. These changes were not made lightly. I want to assure you that we would not have made these changes if we did not feel they were absolutely necessary. With this in mind, the system will not be reverted to the way it was in the past.

If it wasn’t made clear before, this is how the new system works: The attacker will roll to see if they score a Critical Hit. If the attack is a Critical, then the defender will roll to see if they successfully Block the Critical hit. Because this is working differently than how it was calculated before, some of you will notice a change in your chance to score a Critical Hit or Block.

Please give it a try and see the how the changes impact your gameplay in practice. We take your feedback very seriously (both positive and negative). We read the forums here and on other sites. Based on feedback we have already received, we are looking at tweaking some numbers to improve scores at certain points in the level curve. Overall, we want a healthy game where players are having fun. We will continue to monitor player feedback and your progression through the game.

I respect the fact that you will not revert the change in fact I really liked the idea of the update, the only thing that now makes me despise it is how little the block percent is. The ratios are so messed up in a way where the game will be terrible until they are fixed. My suggestions are as follows

Bring the critical rating back up (at least a little) the whole point of this update was to add variety to block. Not crushing critical rating, even though it wasn't lowered drastically it makes it very hard for schools like life or ice to gain a half decent critical rating.

Fix proportions and level scaling. If the block is going to be a percentage the level scaling and the proportions have to be fixed. At around level 60 your critical drops only a little bit from what it previously was, but the block drops a lot. This causes critical to be extremely over powered at these levels because there simply isn't enough block out there to build up reasonable block percent. You have to raise the critical block!

Also unlike critical, I believe block shouldn't have a level penalty (well at least not a big one) this way you can keep up a fairly steady critical block. And 100% is pretty much impossible to achieve and will be for a long time giving the game that much wanted variety. And most wizards have 350 critical block if they want good crit block and maintain good stats as well so that means block would be a coin flip making the game a lot more fun for everyone. Please consider this scale, it can do nothing but change the game for the better.

I will be honest, this does not really balance schools out. Ice is supposed to block, but it is not anymore. How will you fix that? Storm cannot critical as much anymore, how will you fix that?

I've mentioned before... just like the pip percentages base, that you add a base percentage on the critical (Storm, Fire, etc) or Block (Ice, Life) etc, depending on your school. Just a thought, and would appreciate it if you'd try it out

I can understand why you lowered or "adjusted" critical block and strike in PVP - i can also understand that the higher in the worlds you go, the harder it gets. What i do not understand is:

WHY didn't you just make this for the PVP AREA?

The outfit i've worn in the past in azteca level 86 has suited any number of my wizards in the past and no, without using a conviction spell i hardly block anything. With this in mind why dont you allow non pvp players to use their training points go get conviction?

I feel like I've wasted my time farming Darkmoor for my gear, just to get to level 110 to have less than 30% critical hit or block. I can't even farm Mirror Lake anymore without dying. That doesn't make the game fun. It makes me not want to waste my money on membership or crowns because I feel like its doing no good since I just die. I think some changes needed to be made, because no game can stay the same forever and still be interesting, but I also think this was entirely too drastic.

Hello, I think most of us users, paying customers, and wizards have a huge concern. Yes I do agree eventually this needs to change, however, it does not need to be so drastic. We all have paid and farmed for countless days and hours for our gear and for it to get cut by 75% is crazy. Now, we can not even farm Malistare because we die. We even tried with 2 Jades and they die as well from getting crit on constantly. Also we will not be able to crit on them because we never crit. Once again, for the company to make money, you need to change the crit and block to be lowered, why by so much and not have gear to boost us up. Also how in mob fights do we crit on some mobs but not others if it is the same exact character. I think you guys are going to lose many customers just do the game not being fun. PVP is very broken, most people will not pvp. If someone crits, its almost a guarantee crit on. Jades cant compete with that. How is a level 110 only going to have a 30-40% critical rate. You have to go full crit to even get decent crit, then you have no block. Its very broken. Once again, I totally agree it has to go down at some point in time, but not so much. Most of my friend and I will not be playing. I think you should listen to people comments and suggetions instead of being rude and saying it is not changing... Thanks.

It is. It just is. It is not "balanced out." It has literally rendered me completely and utterly useless. I used to have a plethora of great outfits balancing out my stats, or focusing on only one, and now, I can't even fight by myself even for a single round anymore BECAUSE of THIS "Update."

I used to be able to do around 3-4 battles alone in Khrysalis (the world I'm in) and then go get a potion and do some more. My best outfit (which gave 34 resistance, 24 damage, 13% accuracy, 50 critical and 60 block) is now rendered to around 2% critical and 1% block. I have been brought down to the strength of a LEVEL 50 WIZARD USING TREASURE CARDS. I am almost level 100, and I've been weakened BY 50 LEVELS form this update. I have yet to get shadow magic, and now, I see no point in doing so because of how useless I've become. My life spells don't even heal anymore, and I just managed to make an outfit raising my critical to 85%, but the outfit has no resistance, only for it to be dropped down to 54%.

This update has been causing people who spent hundreds...THOUSANDS of dollars on this game over the months, or even YEARS they have played. I've been playing since 2008, as seen under my username, and I have spent well over 5000 dollars on this game in that time. I have most of the bundle houses and armor, several worlds and areas, a bank full of crowns gear and stitched items and pets, and all of it, is complete trash now because of this terrible update.

It has not changed how critical worked, they have always worked based off of the percentage in battle, all you even did was LOWER our critical hits, and say "Its balanced out now." Life wizards who depended on critical hits to heal teammates are now calling themselves "Useless." Storm, one of the strongest schools has suffered immensely, and even some discontinued weapons have been nerfed in this update. This has done little to no balancing in gameplay. I used to be able to Solo, although I prefer to work in teams, but now, even if I want to solo, I'll have to spend even more money buying henchmen or calling friends for help because I can do anything anymore.

I don't want to sound like I hate the game, or I hate its developers, this game, ever since 4th grade, has held a very special place in my heart, and its inspired me to make lots of creative stories of my own, and even inspired a few, and I couldn't quit because of some stupid update.

The reason I am angry, mostly, is because I don't like having to rely on people, and neither does anyone else. I'm usually not one to be bothered by things I do, or bullies saying rude things to be, but now, for once, I actually feel like a burden when I ask people for help. Its infuriating for someone, like me, who is usually happy-go-lucky.

I would really appreciate it if you guys could give us more reason then "Balance out gameplay." Because that sure as in heck is not what this is about. If that was the case, we'd have a smaller amount taken away.

If you are not going to revert/change the new critical system, try taking budget gear into pre-Polaris high level worlds with appropriate level wizards. You will see that bosses and their minions decimate wizards that can NOT afford the best gear. This does not make for enjoyable game play. At least rework the bosses in those areas so they do not critical almost every round and wizards block only once in about 10 critical hits. This makes it hard for players to manage those areas when they can not spend hours playing at a time.

I only pve so my opinion may be somewhat biased, but with the system being implemented 50+ it has altered the effectiveness of current available gear as we quest towards Polaris. I understand completely that the shock of reaching 101 and the vast drop to stats was not aapreciated by most players, so applying it retroactively seemed to make sense.The problem is that none of the existing worlds or gear was made with this new system in mind, they were created under the old system.While it would be unreasonable to expect you to completely redisign everyworld from Celestia onwards, perhaps you could look at the present farmed and crafted gear so it is at least as effective as it once was.I am still mystified that my lvl 68 Myth has better chance to block or critcal than my Fire in full hades set. And as a side note any of my wizards in full darkmoor gear with the hallow packs wands have almost no block whatsoever -_-. I spent hundreads of dollars on packs trying to give my wizards a little edge in pve play especially for farming jewels and gold, I am left wondering what exactly did I bother for? I am sure I am not alone in this I bought over 400 keepers lore packs trying to get most of my wizards jade gear which now gives no chance of critical and a very low chance to block. Could you at least make block more appropriate for our wizards? If this new system was intended to improve player gameplay experience then surely being able to block the mob or boss would be an advantage, being constantly criticaled on is not more fun. My loss in critical from 29% to 4% with hades set was quite a shock too makes almost every hades wand totally worthless. You did allot of work designing Aquila why go and unravel all that work designing gear with this new system. If this system is to remain in place please look at all levels not just those questing in Polaris thanks in advance.

I'm actually very upset with the change to the block system. The critical aspect stayed pretty much the same, just a decrease in percentage, but the change to block from dependent to independent of critical is a bad move. Now both critical and block have a cap at 100%, limiting expansion. Before there were no caps. Before, even if your block percentage was above 100%, it was still dynamic, meaning there's still a chance of you not blocking, under certain circumstances. Now, if block reaches 100%, it's static, meaning that the result will always be a successful block, no matter the circumstances. What should have been changed is just the level decay. If they had just adjusted the decay rate and regulated the stats on all new gear, the system would have been much better. I feel pretty confident in saying that the players, in general, will not be as happy as they were before unless they revert the system and KI saying that they won't revert it is pretty much the last nail in the coffin.

In theory, I like the new system. I like the direction it's heading in, and I believe this is how it should have been from day one. I also like how the new system brings percentages down for all players of all levels and (presumably) mobs and bosses. This solves the critical inflation, with critical rising above 100%.

I don't think we should revert back to the old system. But there are a few problems that need to be addressed. For one, I think the critical decay should be removed or made less of an impact. The idea is that as you level up, you get better gear. With dungeon gear such as Waterworks and Darkmoor being used for many levels, there isn't much we can do to counter this. In Polaris, I'm losing 1% critical and block per level! I know the decay helps keep us from having insane percentages, and I'm not sure how much critical percent a level 110 with 450 critical would get if the decay was completely removed. The decay has kept it in check, but it should be looked into and tweaked just a little bit.

Secondly, mobs and bosses are overpowered in previous worlds. There is a thread on Wizard101 Central that addresses this. Mobs and bosses may be affected by the change, but it doesn't seem to be as much. With our rapidly decaying stats, bosses in Azteca, Khrysalis and Darkmoor are actually harder than before. Our stats are declining but theirs are not. I'm not sure what can be done on this front, but I do think that the decay should really go away or change to a much smaller rate.

Perhaps the decay system could be reworked so that regardless of level, the higher your rating, the less percent more rating provides. For example, 450 critical could mean 30%, regardless of level. That's 15 rating per percent. But 15% would not be at 225 rating, but instead it would be at something like 150 rating, which is 10 rating per percent. When our gear provides us more rating, our stats will go up. But the stat inflation will slow down more and more.